Vic Elford on driving the 917 in 1970 and today

The Porsche 917 is unquestionably one of the all-time great racing cars. Taking advantage of a loophole through then-current FIA regulations, Porsche created a 600-hp “production” car that dominated endurance racing for a couple of years before the FIA countered with new regulations that eliminated the 917’s loophole. But for two glorious years, the 917 bested all comers in endurance racing around the world, including earning the company’s first two of 16 overall wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Porsche 917K at speed at Watkins Glen. Photo by Terry Shea.

In the most recent issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car, I delved into the details of what eventually made the 917, particularly in the form of the updated, second-year 917K, such a winner. I had the opportunity to get driving impressions of the famed car from two perspectives: one from the famous racer who drove the car in its glory years and the other from an experienced vintage racer – and current owner – who has had plenty of laps in a very wide variety of vintage race cars, right up to and including 1970s and 1980s Formula 1 cars. In short, we talked to two guys with plenty of seat time telling us all about the drive.

Vic Elford has long established his bona fides as a talented driver in virtually every type of race he entered, competing behind the wheel of everything from a Triumph TR3A to a Porsche 911 to Formula 1 and eventually to a series of Porsche prototype racers, giving the famed German maker victories in such events as the Daytona 24 Hours (the company’s first overall win in a 24-hour race in 1968), the Targa Florio and a host of other races. From rallies to hillclimbs to Formula 1 to Le Mans, Vic has done it all on four wheels. He even acquitted himself rather nicely on the biggest stage of stock car racing, placing 11th and 10th in his lone two entries at the Daytona 500, an unlikely place for an Englishman to shine.

Vic was with the 917 program from the beginning and immediately refers to the 917 as his most favorite race car whenever asked. The first-year 917 proved rather challenging and was considered dangerous by almost everyone who attempted to tame it, save for Vic.

Vic Elford at speed at Sebring in 1971 on the way to winning with teammate Gerard Larrousse. Photo by Pete Lyons courtesy of Porsche.

“The first year, 1969, it was pretty unstable,” recalls Vic, “to such a point that, for example, on the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans, coming to the kink, you couldn’t just lift off, you had to ease back on the throttle. At the Mulsanne corner, it was even worse – you had to ease back on the throttle and then go easy and very gently onto the brakes, because if you snapped off, what happened was that aerodynamics were in their infancy then and nobody knew much about them, including even [Porsche Engineering Chief Ferdinand] Piech. What happened at high speed was that if you snapped off the throttle, the back end just sort of came up in the air and started steering the front, which at 220 MPH wasn’t really very nice.

Although not original, the Martini & Rossi livery sported by the 917 with chassis #037 mimics that of the car driven by Vic Elford at the 1971 Daytona 24 Hours, where a high-speed blowout of the right rear tire nearly destroyed the original. Photo by Terry Shea.

“Even that didn’t bother me too much, because one of the things about that very first car was that it was very unstable. Being unstable didn’t bother me as much as it did most of the other [drivers], because I came from a few years of rally driving first. One of the things about high-speed rally cars – and it’s true to this day – they are inherently unstable. Actually, that’s not quite the word. They are very stable. They are inherently basically oversteering cars. You can twiddle them around, twitch them around, do what you like with them. So, when the 917 started behaving in that way, it really didn’t bother me because I was quite used to being sideways at high speeds.”

Porsche 917K at speed at Watkins Glen. Photo by Terry Shea.

The 12-cylinder, 580-hp 917, an evolution of significant order over the previous top Porsche, the eight-cylinder 908, was so much faster and more powerful than the other cars at Le Mans in 1969, it should have walked away. And when Vic was leading the race by some 50 miles over the second-place car with just a couple of hours to go, the transaxle bellhousing cracked, ending Porsche’s attempt at winning the world’s most famous race. Even worse, the lone privateer in a 917, an Englishman named John Woolfe, died on the first lap in a fiery crash that red flagged the race for two hours.

Lamenting the loss of Woolfe, Vic describes the situation: “That was an accident looking to happen that first year. John Woolfe simply shouldn’t have been driving it. He didn’t have the experience. He didn’t have the ability to be in a car like that. He just never should have been in it.”

Porsche 917K during action at the SVRA event at Watkins Glen. Photo by Terry Shea.

With an admitted “photographic memory for roads,” Vic explains the situation on a difficult, high-speed section at la Sarthe: “White House in those days was a very, very tricky combination of corners. After Arnage corner, there is a long straight, which was already there and then there was a left and a long right and then another right, leading into what are now the Porsche curves. But, at that point, the old track – before the Porsche curves, you used to go straight on. This was just two-lane national roads. We used to go over a little hump-backed bridge, in fifth gear, doing around 200 MPH. We’d go over a little bridge, change down to fourth gear while we were in the air. Then there would be probably about a 60-degree right, still very fast in fourth gear, as opposed to fifth, at around 180 MPH, and then a tighter left-hand corner through what was then known as White House corner or Maison Blanche.

“Just one, little white house on the right, absolutely at the edge, three feet from the edge of the track. As we used to go through there – accelerating through there – the car would start to slide just a touch. A little bit of opposite lock, not much, out toward the White House on the right and then before we got to the edge of the road, we would give it a little twitch on the wheel and stop the slide so that it would then start to come slightly back the other way.”

Porsche 917K at speed at Watkins Glen. Photo by Terry Shea.

Woolfe was out of his league, having gotten off to a good start, running with the leaders, but simply unable to control the slide and navigate the corner at White House. But as Vic points out, “Nobody else ever died in a 917. I have a theory about this. I think one of the reasons is that, by the time we got to 1970 and then into 1971 later on as well, the car had such phenomenal performance that there were very, very few drivers who were capable of driving it to its limit, which meant that the more normal drivers, whatever they got to, there was always plenty left in the car. So, the car was basically under stressed.”

“There were really only a handful of us who could to the limit. There were Jo [Siffert], Pedro [Rodriguez] and me from the start. And then I suppose one would include Brian [Redman] and Derek [Bell], when they came into driving them later on. There was really nobody else. Nobody could drive it to the limit like we could, especially the short one. The short tail one, you could push that to unbelievable limits.”

The upswept, truncated rear tail section of the 917K – the feature that tamed the beast – was almost accidentally discovered by the Wyer team during post-season testing in 1969. Photo by Terry Shea.

During post-season testing in 1969, Porsche, with the help of the John Wyer team (the same guys that won the 1968 and 1969 Le Mans 24 with an old, outdated Ford GT40 as privateers), significantly redesigned the 917’s bodywork, creating the upswept truncated tail that became the signature feature of the 917K, a car that started dominating in 1970.

“It was a beautiful car to drive,” says Vic, “absolutely beautiful, right from the word ‘go’ in Argentina, when it became officially a 917K for the first time. It was, from then on, just lovely to drive. With the long-tail car, you had to be very, very precise. With the short-tail car, you could move it around a bit. If you made a mistake going into the corner, it didn’t really matter much, because you could get it a little bit sideways and could sort it out. But with the long tail, once you committed to a corner, you couldn’t change your mind, so you had to get it right first time. You couldn’t slide the car, move it around – it just didn’t like it.”

Greg Galdi with his 917K between turns eight and nine on “The Boot” at Watkins Glen. Photo by Terry Shea.

Although he is not likely to slide his 917K around, Greg Galdi does have plenty of experience with hustling vintage iron (and aluminum and magnesium and…) around the track, having campaigned everything from a Lotus 11 to a Lotus 23 to a trio of Caterham Sevens he built himself to a Lola T-70 to a trio of Formula 1 cars powered by both 3.0-liter Cosworth DFV and the later 3.5-liter DFZ engines. He has driven sports cars, such as the factory BMW M3s that had great results in top-level U.S. sports car racing in the late 1990s and then eventually moved up to a Porsche 908 and later a 956 before stepping into the 917, which he has enjoyed at such famed tracks as Watkins Glen, Laguna Seca, and Road America.

While he doesn’t have the chops of Vic Elford, Greg remains a successful businessman who has taken the opportunity to pursue a hobby plenty of us would indulge in given the means and the time. Also, to Greg’s credit, he remains humble enough to realize that, despite all of his experience behind the wheel, his driving remains a hobby and not a profession as it was for Vic. When Greg gets behind the wheel, even as he pursues faster laps, he does so with the knowledge that his ability to put food on the table is not predicated by his performance and reputation at the track.

Greg Galdi drives his Porsche 917K on the streets of downtown Watkins Glen during the annual festival that closes the roads and allows the vintage racers to take laps of the original course run on the streets. Photo by Terry Shea.

But he does give us a unique perspective about what it’s like to drive a state-of-the-art 1970s race car in 2014. When Greg bought the car, he had it delivered to Laguna Seca, during the 2011 Rennsport Reunion event. His first familiarization with the 917K, and its 600-hp flat-12, was at the famed Northern California track. “I had driven Laguna several times,” says Greg, “and I also have an iRacing simulator that I use, which makes such a difference. So, I get out there, within a few laps, I’m up to speed. As opposed to normally, it probably takes me a session and a half. And that’s precious time that you get to enjoy yourself and work up your skills.

“The view out of the front of that car is terrific. You see right in front of you. The nose really drops off, so you see really well. You’re pretty tight in there because it’s a pretty small car. It’s really meant for smaller people than I am. It helps a lot if you’re 5’9”. Vic Elford must have been scrunched up in there. Something else that has happened is that the helmets have gotten thicker. I think back in the old days they probably weren’t very thick. Now, it’s at least a couple of inches, which you lose all around.

Porsche 917K during action at the SVRA event at Watkins Glen./Photo by Terry Shea.

“Boy, there’s no feeling like coming down that straightaway and pressing that pedal down. It’s got a very long travel and you push that down and you just feel that torque propel you up that hill. Coming up that hill and making that left at the Corkscrew [at Laguna Seca], I don’t care what you’re in, that’s an exciting turn. The road drops out from under you.”

When I asked Greg how it compared to driving the other vintage racers he has owned, he responds, “I would say ‘comparatively easy.’ It’s a car that demands respect because of its horsepower, which is somewhere around 600. The car is about 1,800 pounds and you have some big, fat tires on it, but they’re grooved, so you’ve got to give the torque some respect. But, boy, it’s a great chassis and it’s very communicative to the driver and it tells you what it’s doing and it’s real fast! It really scoots along with all of that torque. It just moves along.

“I drive this car more like 50 or 60 percent [of its limits]. The Formula 1 cars, with the exception of the absolute top speed, I’ve probably gotten a quite a bit out of the [McLaren] M23, that it has to give. I would say 70, 80 percent. If I have peaks above that, it’s a particular track on a particular day with a nice, fresh set of tires and everything’s working right and you’ve had some time.

“But I watch Bobby Rahal jump into anything, and that immediately becomes the fastest car in the pack. There’s a reason why professionals are professionals. They have two things: They have a tremendous amount of time dedicated to training and honing their skills. And another thing is, they have a lot of skills. I don’t have either of those. I don’t have a tremendous amount of time that I spend with the car relative to a professional. I would have had to start when I was about six or so in go-karts, like most of these guys did, to develop those skills. These are early cars. There was a high risk involved in these cars. There’s not much impact protection. In many of these cars I drive, my feet are in front of the axle line and things like that. There’s no championship money. There are no prizes. There is no sponsorship coming. The best thing I can do is drive the car back into the trailer at the end of the weekend and I’ve had a good time and exposed some people to an era that they otherwise would never get to see.”

SUGGESTED READING

jim ssays:

April 18, 2014 4:23 pm

saw them at the glen back in the early 70’s. there was a 6hr on saturday and a can am on sunday, i think. the 917 ran both races. i think. the 917 were so much better and so were the 917 teams. they had spare motors/trans and other sub assemblies, that were ready to go , in big cases. i learned a lot about race prep from watching them.

jim ssays:

April 19, 2014 8:05 pm

Robert Orr Jrsays:

April 21, 2014 10:45 am

You are correct. The Chaparral was ugly as a mud fence and eventually dropped out when its fans clogged with soft rubber tread balls. This was the summer of 1970. I was just back from Vietnam and partying hard. Was the Gulf livery #20 Porsche in that race? I think Steve McQueen drove that car at some point. PORSCHE917K is one of my favorite computer passwords.

Ganjokasays:

April 22, 2014 1:34 pm

I was sitting in the stands at then turn 9 (now turn 1) and watched the sucker car tear up the pavement in that turn and spit it out the back. Any following car was forced to take evasive action and I think they black flagged it for that reason. This was when the pits were along the downhill after this turn and before the Esses. I don’t recall the Gulf Porsche in this race but I could be wrong. It was a long time ago.

D.L.says:

April 18, 2014 7:24 pm

Vic’s comments take me back to the movie, “Lemans”, and the Road and Track poster I had on my wall of the 917, back in the day. Thank you for your words and descriptions of what it was like to drive the 917.

George Allegrezzasays:

April 19, 2014 2:44 am

carsonsays:

April 19, 2014 7:24 pm

” it was a beast ” That’s how Dutchman Gijs van Lennep esquire discribed the Porsche 917k to me when I asked him to discribe the car .He should know as he and Helmut Marko won the 1971 LeMans in 1971 in #22 and set a record number of laps that stood till 2010..Gijs went on to win the ’72 Targa Florio in a Porsche Carrera RSR and the LeMans a second time in 1976 in a Porsche 936 Turbo w/ Jacky Ickx.He also racein 10 F1 races. Any way, I saw his name on the side of this car and it brought back memories when just several years ago we competed against Gijs in the Original Class in the 2013 la Carrera Panamerican Mexican road race / rally . He was in a Porsche of course .
giddy up

Jack Longsays:

April 21, 2014 9:42 am

Given the early 917’s reputation as such a twitchy, hard to control car I was amazed to read that only 1 driver ever died in one. One of my favorite cars at the Simeone Museum is the “hippie” 917 with the psychedelic paint job. If I recall correctly, it still holds the all time top speed record at LeMans.

George Allegrezzasays:

April 21, 2014 12:21 pm

The long-tails were my favorite, including the hippie 917L and the Max-Sardou-designed dash 20 “Pink Pig”. Variations of the downforce-producing front duct he developed would later appear on the 917 dash 30, the 936, and the 956/962.

RandyP63says:

April 21, 2014 10:07 am

Stan Goodmansays:

April 21, 2014 10:27 am

If anyone wants to see a really great collection of Porsche race cars, including the 917, they must put the REVS Institute Museum in Naples, FL on their bucket list. This private collection of cars only recently opened to the public.

Olddavidsays:

April 21, 2014 10:37 am

I applaud these men who drive their vintage racers in anger, regardless of the value. After all, they are racing cars. I haven’t been to PIR for a couple of years, but the show at any vintage event is always a spectacle that makes me glad I went.

Pete Orebaughsays:

April 21, 2014 11:05 am

Ian McKeansays:

April 21, 2014 2:03 pm

Some of you may be familiar with the Nostalgia Forum, which is now part of the Autosport website. Some years ago, maybe seven or eight, Vic posted some stories about driving the 917. I expect they are still there. Must reads, IMHO.

April 21, 2014 7:30 pm

Don Tittlesays:

April 22, 2014 7:50 pm

Every time LeMans comes on t.v. (usually on TMC) I have to watch it. Just to hear that howl when the 917 hits it’s stride. I’m a Mopar fan but damn that sound makes the hair on my arms stand up. I usually crank the t.v. volume up to 3/4!

Gary Nicholssays:

February 1, 2016 9:42 am

Most of all, and regardless of their racing records, I just love the way all the 917 variants look, the shapes, the colors, even those crazy liveries. I was lucky enough to be in the crowd on the outside of the track, about 1/2 way down hill from the Dunlop tire, for the 1970 Le Mans race. I shared my US Army parka and air mattress with a couple of Brits and a New Zealander from a local camp ground. What a weekend. Gary

Mike Smartsays:

February 12, 2016 11:58 pm

I was in the Air Fobut Vic just wanted to race.rce in England and got to see many races there, but the best was the 1969 BOAC 1000 km…The 917’s cleaned up with the Gulf cars with Pedro Rodriquez…I remember being a crew chief on an old Genie in the Can-Am race at Laguna Seca and I was standing next to Vic when he got out of Jim Hall’s Sucker car after qualifying..He was so mad at Jim Hall…he had the field covered by several seconds and the motor had blown at the end of qualifying and Jim said load it up ….He was so upset with the governing body over his car….